Koch Industries and Citizens United Back Dissidents

Despite the fact that Koch Industries has attempted to distance itself from the budget and debt ceiling hardliners in Congress this week, there are ties between the company and the Republicans who have been pushing their leadership to hang tough.

As it turns out, Koch Industries’ corporate PAC is a big supporter of many of the 20 “dissident” Republican House members who have been identified as the biggest thorns in the side of the Republican leadership on the shutdown and the debt ceiling.

In fact, KochPAC and the conservative activist group Citizens United both stand out for their support of members of this group.

According to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis, the No. 1 source of contributions to the 20 is Citizens United’s PAC, which has given the dissidents a combined $86,000 in the first half of 2013. Only 13 of the 20 dissidents received money from Citizens United, but the total is nearly twice as much as the $43,500 Citizens United gave to all the other members of the Republican House caucus combined, suggesting these members are particularly well-liked by the group.

The No. 2 source of cash for the 20 was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor‘s Every Republican Is Crucial (ERIC PAC) leadership PAC, which has combined to give them about $55,000. That’s not insignificant, but, as we detailed last week, it’s just a small fraction of the total $875,000 Cantor’s PAC has handed out, and only a handful of the 20 actually received funds from the PAC.

And tied for No. 2 is KochPAC, which has also given a combined $55,000 to the dissidents’ campaign committees or leadership PACs. The PAC has funded more than half the group, in fact — 11 of the 20. It has also given to a number of non-dissident Republicans, but hasn’t spread its funds as widely as ERIC PAC (Democrats brought in just $7,500 from KochPAC). Dissidents have received about 6 percent of ERIC PAC’s money so far this year, and 10 percent of all money given to Republicans by the Koch PAC.

In the table below are the top ten organizations (counting money from PACs and individuals associated with those organizations) supplying campaign money to these 20 in the first six months of the 2014 election cycle. We’ve also included how much they give to the other members of the House Republican caucus, and where the donors rank for each group.

In terms of individuals supporting these 20 so far this cycle, there are no single donors backing all 20 dissidents, but there are some patterns in individual giving that seem to buck the GOP trend.

For example, it’s unsurprising to see Atlanta as the No. 1 source, by zip code, of funding to the 20. Two of them — Reps. Phil Gingrey and Rep. Tom Graves — are from Georgia and Gingrey is running for Senate in 2014. Similarly, the next several top geographic sources of funding are all metro areas that are represented by one or more members of the dissident list.

But when the zip codes of donors for all members of the House Republican caucus are analyzed, the the No. 1 metro area for donations is Washington, D.C., possibly reflecting in part contributions from lobbyists and other fixtures of Washington. For the 20 dissidents, it’s only the seventh largest source. While New York City is the third largest source of campaign cash for House Republicans, it is the seventeenth for these dissidents. Chicago and Philadelphia are No. 2 and No. 4 for all Republicans, and 20th and 37th for group of 20.

Below is a table showing the top five metro areas sending money to the 20 dissidents and the top five metro areas sending money to non-dissident Republican House members.

Russ joined the Center in March 2012 as the money-in-politics reporter. His duties include reporting for OpenSecrets Blog and assisting with press inquiries. Russ has a background in investigative journalism, having worked as a reporter for the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, and he spent five years as a newspaper reporter in New Hampshire. He has a degree in political science from Muhlenberg College and a M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University.

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